3. Which kind of encounter between faith & reason? Beyond the "aut-aut", the challenge of an "et-et"

Read in the context of the historical period in which John Paul II grew up and lived, and in light of the figures who played such an influential role in determining his "theological biography", "faith" and "reason" are tightly woven within a vital relationship, by a reciprocal stimulus and enrichment. What the Polish Pope affirms in the Encyclical Faith and Reason, he has, above all, experienced in his intellectual adventure and in his own spiritual experience as protagonist of our time. If the presumptions of enlightened reason excluded every residual element linked to the world of faith from the dominion of rationality, opposing reason and faith in an "aut-aut" relationship without any remission, then the history of modernity has shown how this exclusion has been lethal for reason itself, making it inexorably totalitarian and violent. This is why the recovery of the correct relationship between faith and reason has been emphasised by Karol Wojtyla as being of vital urgency, not only at the service of the proclamation of the faith but also in order to promote the dignity and ethical quality of the human person. The "et-et" relationship which the Pope proposes - and, as has been said, it is found "in actu exercito" in all the works that he has produced as thinker and as pastor - moves in three directions: the first could be defined as a sort of apology for "open reason"; the second refers to a faith that is truly involved in a search ("fides quaerens intellectum"); while the third relates more directly to the actual encounter between these two terms, in an open and reciprocally fecund dialogue.

3.1 A reason aware of its limits and open to transcending them

Fides et Ratio is, first of all, an apology for reason 10. In an era marked by a crisis of trust in the possibility of reason, because of the results of the ideological adventures, such an apology is indeed far from insignificant. Reason is certainly not defended as an absolute knowledge, presumptuously closed in on itself, but in so far as it is the fundamental instrument by which human beings set out to live in the service of the truth to which they are originally called by the very fact that they exist. What is at play here is the idea of truth itself. 11 If the truth is a possession to be manipulated, as ideological reason proposed, then the human being is and remains closed within his/her own horizon of truth, limited to the point of suffocation, as the historical parable of ideology demonstrates. If, instead, truth is not a possession, something that is captured and held within the confines of reason, but is the objective and transcendent Other that also embraces us, then it is not possible to disclose oneself to the truth without posing the ultimate questions and without allowing oneself to listen to the various possibilities by which the transcendent and sovereign truth also reaches us. To summarise then, the truth is not circumscribable from the "cogito ergo sum", from the "I think, therefore I am". It rather has to be grasped from within the experience of the "cogitor ergo sum", of the "I have been thought of therefore I am". Truth is the very guardian of existence, and it alone can open up a flight from oneself towards the Other.

What the Pope emphasizes is a faith in the capacity of reason to open itself up to the truth, of being an "open reason". The refusal is not addressed to the exercise of the reason, but rather to a weak exercising of it, one that renounces the possibility of opening up to the horizon towards the Transcendent. To propose the metaphysical question again, in the etymological sense of that which lies "beyond physical things" and that moves beyond the phenomenon in order to arrive at the foundation, means to propose again the one true question which is worth asking in philosophy, that question to which human beings are predisposed by the radical nostalgia that they bear within themselves from the very first moment of existence. It is at this point that philosophy truly appears not to be concurrent with theology, but appears rather as a discipline united by a thought that searches for the horizons and listens to the various ways by which the Other speaks to us, which is precisely the thought of faith.

3.2 A faith which seeks

The Encyclical clearly affirms that there is no one Christian philosophy, even if it supports the full legitimacy of a "Christian Philosophizing", that is, of "a philosophical speculation conceived in dynamic union with faith" 12. Two thousand years of Christianity bear witness to this speculation. Even the inculturation of the faith in new contexts would be superficial if it were to omit some of the baggage of this two thousand years history that has produced extraordinary fruit in both the Western consciousness and beyond. The reference to the history of the thinking of the faith shows how it is possible to exercise the philosophical quest and to be at the same time open to the gift of revelation. From this point of view, one can understand how philosophy is the ground for possible mutual understanding and of dialogue with those who do not share the faith. Reason is not limited by faith but is, rather, empowered by faith. Neither, on the other hand, is faith dominated or subjected to reason. Reason and faith are two sources of knowledge that are neither identical nor concurrent. One is the pure exercise of our understanding, while the other is the reception of the light that comes from on high through the gift of revelation. These two sources do not annul or suppress each another. Rather they meet, and this encounter of the human flight and the advent of the divine is the thought of faith, which makes the baggage of philosophical questioning its own and enriches it through the heard word of revelation.

Dialogue between reason and faith is, therefore, made possible, in the degree to which each one is itself and both are open to the possibility of being transcended. A philosopher who proposes radical questions does not exclude the possibility of hearing the advent of the Other. A thinker of the faith who recognizes the pronunciation of the divine Name in revelation integrates the philosophical questions with the understanding he has been given. In the light of these premises it is possible among contemporary philosophies to point out three great souls which are linked to this searching faith ("fides quaerens intellectum"). The first one is that of a philosophical thinker who is not only open to transcendence but also to the recognition of it in revelation. We are dealing with the so-called "Christian philosophy", which involves the full use of reason within the horizon that is disclosed by the accepted belief in the Deity's self-communication in history. Then there is a second model, which could be characterised as that philosophy which poses radical questions and is open to the ultimate questions but is not conjugated with obedience to the faith. There are various thinkers who move within this dimension, including some of the greatest nineteenth century thinkers. For this form of thought the Encyclical constitutes an ulterior invitation to enter into a dialogue with the faith in revelation and with theology, in the belief that the truth of revelation is neither concurrent with nor adverse to philosophical research, but open to the wonder of transcendence. A third possibility refers to the so-called "weak thought", that is, to the thought that prejudicially closes itself off from the possibility of transcendence and from the questions that surround it, not recognising any effort of the human reason to transcend itself in a move toward the objective truth. In face of such thought, the Encyclical presents itself as both critical and problematic, and rightly so since a thought which from its very beginnings denies the possibility of an objective truth and of a transcendent movement towards it condemns reason to a sort of "solipsism". In reality the Encyclical challenges the "weak" or "nihilist" thinkers to measure themselves against their own philosophies. Even in this way, however, it presents itself as a challenge and as a testimony that favours the highest dignity of human reason and the possibilities given it to search for and arrive at the truth before ever making a decision about it. In this sense it resumes, in the densest possible way, the entire anthropologic magisterium of John Paul II.

3.3 Faith and reason listening to the Other

The terms in which the Encyclical arranges the dialogue between philosophy and theology, between faith and reason, are, therefore, profoundly respectful of the reciprocal dignity and autonomy of these two worlds, as well as of their necessary and fecund integration. In the spirit of his entire magisterium as thinker and pastor, the Pope affirms that the recognition of the truth which is universally valid - that is the truth of revelation - does not determine any intolerance, since it brings one to recognise the value that exists in every human person, in his/her questions and possible responses, even if it offers criteria in respect of which everyone, beginning with the believer, can measure his/her own affirmations and acquisition of the truth. Dialogue is possible, then, and useful where the interlocutors accept to be measured by the truth that transcends them and to some degree embraces them. This would not be possible where one of the two holds himself/herself to be the exclusive guardian of the truth or indeed even goes so far as to identify himself/herself with it. The Pope affirms the transcendence of the truth also in respect of the very mediation of the thought on the faith, which lives in fact through obedience - that is profound hearing - of revealed truth and not in the presumption to dominate it. Even dogma should not be interpreted as a limit to the progress of human thought, but as the bulwark against its regression, that is, the resistance against moving backwards in respect of the possible openness of reason toward the profundity of the revealed Mystery.

The custody of the message and the freedom of the question are not meant to annul one another, but rather to meet one another. We are not talking about imposing limits to philosophy. Where it is understood to be the exercising of a radical questioning, philosophy cannot but recognise its own limits, which are the same as those of the reason by which the question is posed. If the highest task of reason is that of rendering reason, then it cannot but recognize that it is limited by the incapacity to give a reason for everything, especially before the ultimate mystery of existence. "Why does something exist and not nothing?" This fundamental philosophical question, which has turned up again and again even in contemporary philosophy, coincides with the constancy of the radical impossibility to give a reason why everything exists. For this reason one can say that philosophy is such when it recognizes rather than denies its actual limit. In this Encyclical, and indeed throughout his entire magisterium, the Pope reminds us that revelation is the gift by which God helps reason to open itself up to that which lies beyond the limit which it has already recognized. On the threshold of "the wonder of reason", that is, the admission of the very paradox of existence that cannot find any explanation in reason alone, to dispose oneself to the ear of an Other, to His speech in words and in events, does not lessen reason but makes it rather more thoughtful. Faith in revelation is not concurrent with reason. It is rather that which stimulates reason toward a much higher transcendence and in so doing nourishes and strengthens it, opening it up to horizons that would otherwise remain unknown and impenetrable.

It is here that the history of western philosophy, even in the modern era, confirms the fecundity of the encounter that is possible between faith and reason. How much light has the Christian revelation given to human beings in order to make them more intense searchers, opening them up to horizons that alone can truly correspond to their thirst for meaning and their nostalgia for peace! God is not concurrent with the human person, but is his/her friend, the Creator who came down and drew close to us in order to draw us closer to him, in a covenant that is celebrated fully in the person of the Redeemer. This encounter, fulfilled in Christ, is the true reason for his absolute singularity for the salvation of the world. John Paul II has been called to be its herald through the word and the life of his entire itinerary as thinker and pastor. This task he has entrusted to the Church through this Encyclical, "Faith and Reason". It is precisely for this reason that it can be taken as the dense compendium of all of the coordinated fundamentals of what this Pope, who came from the East, has wanted to say and has said to the Church and to the world, for the glory of God and the salvation of humanity. Indeed it is the interpretative key to his Encyclicals and summarizes the entire message of his word and his life.

10. Faith and Reason, p. 87, 56: "Faith thus becomes the convinced and convincing advocate of reason".

11. The word "truth" appears 208 times in the text of the Encyclical.

12. Faith and Reason, p. 110, 76.